FINE GAEL finance spokesman Michael Noonan has said that his ministerial pension is donated to charity each month.
He was responding to a newspaper report that he was still receiving €30,000 per year as a ministerial pension, despite a claim by his party that all sitting Fine Gael TDs would forgo such payments.
“I wish to state that all amounts payable to me as ministerial pension are paid directly into a dedicated bank account. The full amount of the pension is paid out by way of standing order, each month, to two well-known charities,” Mr Noonan said in a statement yesterday.
Mr Noonan said the arrangement had been in place since party leader Enda Kenny requested that former Fine Gael ministers in receipt of ministerial pension would either assign the pension to the exchequer or donate it to charity.
“The bank account records will verify the veracity of this statement,” he added.
A party spokeswoman said all other Fine Gael TDs who had not given up their ministerial pensions were donating the money to charity.
Fine Gael unsuccessfully proposed a Bill in the Dáil last May calling for ministerial pensions to members of the Oireachtas to be stopped with immediate effect.
Mr Noonan has held three ministerial portfolios since he was first elected to the Dáil in the early 1980s: justice (1982-86); industry and commerce (1986-87) and health (1994-97).